City Council makes requests for amendment reports on OCP

Prince George City Council made their request for reports on potential amendments on the Official Community Plan.

At a special meeting tonight (Wednesday), City Council discussed having reports come back on roughly 30 amendments, in addition to several reports requested at the previous meeting from last week.

At the previous meeting, Manager of Legislative Services Ethan Anderson requested Council ask for reports on proposed amendments, rather than the amendments themselves.

“So it’s not an amendment motion that we’re dealing with right now, we were hoping to report back on proposed amendments from Council, so that we can provide additional information, options, highlight concerns,” he said at the last meeting.

There was a wide range of topics covered in the reports requested by Council, some which which included:

• Shifting the identity of the City from a winter city to a year-round destination,
• Enhance safety by mitigating wildfires in the City, with work including planting less flammable trees,
• Addressing spaces to help promote food security,
• Prioritize parks in underserved areas in addition to growth priority areas,
• Produce a plain-language summary and visual guide to accompany the OCP, making key concepts, land designations and planning impacts accessible to the public,
• Include public washroom access where possible when considering facilities,
• Incorporating a strategy for large regional, provincial, national, or international events as a tool for driving economic development,
• Prioritize ground-oriented, accessible housing near transit and other services.

“My thoughts, even based on last meeting when the first batch of amendments came through, we’re looking at likely no earlier than June for a report back to Council,” said Director of Planning and Development.

Anderson also noted it will be likely there will be a second public hearing on the plan.